Tallahassee judge could face 60-day suspension
NSF Staff Report
A Tallahassee-area circuit judge should face a 60-day suspension without pay after she acted as an attorney for her son following his arrest in a shooting incident, a disciplinary panel recommended last Friday to the Florida Supreme Court.
A hearing panel of the Florida Judicial Qualifications Commission issued a 36-page document detailing findings and recommendations involving 2nd Judicial Circuit Judge Barbara Hobbs. Hobbs faced a series of allegations stemming in part from her son’s 2019 arrest after an incident in which he shot through a door at his home and struck a woman.
Hobbs went to the Tallahassee police station and acted as her son’s attorney, including during police questioning of her son, said the document filed last Friday. The hearing panel concluded that Hobbs, who later contacted an attorney to represent her son, violated judicial canons.
“Judge Hobbs did not merely render advice to her son, without recompense,” the panel wrote. “She asserted self-defense and sought her son’s release by the TPD into her custody, without charges.”
The panel, which also probed actions of Hobbs’ judicial assistant, recommended a 60-day suspension for Hobbs, a public reprimand and required attendance at an employee-management program. The Supreme Court has final say about disciplining judges.
“In reaching its decision, the hearing panel has taken into account the fact that Judge Hobbs is remorseful and has no prior history of discipline over a lengthy career as an attorney and a judge,” the panel wrote. “Judge Hobbs made no attempt to cover up or disguise her representation of her son as an attorney. Nor did the judge lie or misrepresent her conduct.”
The 2nd Judicial Circuit is made up of Leon, Franklin, Gadsden, Jefferson, Liberty and Wakulla counties.
